


what they call dreams

by Lizlow



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 01:09:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21235652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizlow/pseuds/Lizlow
Summary: History is someone’s story, only provable to be true. But what about all the stories that the world hides away. Are they not history as well?What if in nine-hundred and ninety-nine lives, we failed to all make it in some way. Our losses helped the others in growing, but the pain didn't fly away. One step too late, one turn wrong. But, on the thousandth chance, the world change its rhythm, and ours matched up. What if we struggled anyway, but this time, we beat it. We beat it and all lived to tell the tale. What if this was a chance at a peaceful life?...What if the cycle finally let us go?





	what they call dreams

**Author's Note:**

> It's not really based on the HUNGRY DAYS AU, since I started this beforehand, but I was SUPER overjoyed to see Ace with Sabo in the Nami CM! Koala in the classroom too wahhh...
> 
> anyway this was something I wrote when I was suffering a really bad mental block :( it's very self-indulgent because i love to embrace living. some of this might have inconsistencies, but I've been looking at this for a while and decided that, even if things might not be the most polished, I didn't want it going to waste! As it was scraped up from during a block, it's really a case of I tried my best, and here's hoping that it's enjoyable nonetheless! I really love One Piece!

The salty-sea smell is one they can never get over. Dirt-dusted sand wiggles and sticks between their toes, mingling with the moisture, feeling warm and welcoming under their feet, caking on to remind them so _ joyfully _ that there are wind of change that will _ forever _ signal freedom. They are alive; they are enticing. How many will fall into their lines of thought? Will they invite into leagues of their own making an _ entire _ generation of rebellious go-getters ready to pave their own paths? 

It feels as though lifetimes of trials loom over them but, within those, there are also days upon days of laughter. 

Well, _ well_, the pits of _ that _ all will be discovered eventually, should it ever bare fruit. Now, _ now_, these breezes, sun-kissed, are enveloping, comforting, _ finally_. 

Wide-eyed and youthful, but not ignorant, so sing the champion. Facing a flurry of battles, all ones that tempt to cast a tangling net all over. This is how those who defy the world’s order must live: Ready to break the chains and prevent the anchors, the real daunting ones, from weighing them down. Refusing to let whirlpools dizzy and dictate their course, they escape the storm’s clutches, exiting on the other side to the brightest, cheerist song. 

Who _ really _ makes up the crew on this ship? Will they always be sailors on the same one, or will they board their own dinghys and diverge upon their individual wishes? Or can they continue to share, to live, to prosper, side-by-side, no one left behind, no one too far separated. 

_ Three brothers _, Koala, a girl shaken by circumstances that had befallen her, meets these three brothers one day, when the mark on their maps all aligned. Hack, an instructor and guardian of a sort of hers, brings her over with him one day. He said, directly, that it was because he was checking in on some kids that were around her age, and there they were. No fluff. No lies. 

Boys, three of them. 

Loud and proud, they parade themselves through fantastical journeys, taking on the biggest foes their mentalities can muster! They play and spar and thrive in the fact that they are together, still. Nothing to force them part, nothing to say that these brothers cannot be brothers anymore. No, the attempts fell flat, close calls though they might have been, and now they are tied together, gladly. Best friends, _ family_. 

In spite of any nerves that may have plotted to threaten her, Koala steadies herself as best she can and looks at these boys, who _ really _ are about the same age as her (yet, somehow, are _ so _ much larger) and she soon finds herself... solidly in a state of comfort. They’re sort of stand-offish in the beginning, and she gets it. She’s a stranger, a complete one, and there’s no reason they need to break their dynamic - their world - for her. But... even still, there’s just something about their rowdy state that brings her down, as though they’re instantly familiar, as though they’d _ always _ be. 

From where doe it rise? And why? Never has she met them before, nor has she encountered anyone like them. So _ how _ could they feel like this? The reigns, they end up being mixed in, and into their pace _ everything _ falls. Looks like all is who they will beckon. They, _ they _ can bring her head to _ such _ an ache, but she, _ she _ would not have it any other way. They don’t judge her for any uncontrollable past, for the people around her, and they don’t even really ask about it. It’s a _ tell if you wanna _ situation, and she thinks that works well for them. 

She just has to remember that she needn’t apologize for being herself. 

These three brothers... Their names are Ace, Sabo, and Luffy. Koala, well, she’s an outsider, but she can parse out something very important. They, _ they _ are all strung together by this powerful thing called fate. And they are resolved to combat the deeper, crueler tresses of these pavements by making their own way by their own choices. That’s all they want; that’s all they dream of. 

To live, and to feel alive alongside it. 

“...Hack, sir, why is it that you had to check in on him?” Koala asks, one day. 

“On that kid?” Hack responds, asking in confirmation. Koala gives him a nod, despite not being sure if he’s referring to exactly who she is. He then continues speaking, “because of that incident. And because of Dragon.” 

“Mister Dragon... huh...” Koala’s not stupid. She’ll understand it eventually. There’s no motion to talk about other relations. It’s simply said that she should enjoy her life how it is. 

She’s glad she’s not alone. 

So in that sense, and any other, Koala fits right in. They find that she’s stronger than Luffy, for the time being, holding her own when it comes to competing against Sabo. Ace still manages to out-edge the two of them but, horseplay aide, they’re tight, just as their grips on their dreams. It shows in their actions, where they all march and race their way to school together, where the troublesome trio is pursued by the ever-exasperated young lady who’s _ sort of _an older sister. 

It _ does _ take Ace a bit to warm up to her. Sabo’s isn’t instant either, of course, but it’s much more on Ace’s face. Koala sizes it up to be because of those recent shambles that she’s since picked up on, including almost losing contact with Sabo. Surely, there must be much more that is unspoken. There always is. It’s really difficult to open up when everything and everyone teaches you to push it down and listen. _ Obey_. 

But pressure like that doesn’t sing freedom, not at all!

“H-Hey, I’m sorry for sticking around... and in your business at that... I _ am _ trying to do what I can to help out, --” Koala starts. Ace always appears so serious, so... _ pouty! _ when it comes to not being around his brothers, so Koala has a lot of trouble reading him. Even now, when it’s just the two of them, the book in her hands, and the beaten yet slowly-renewing surroundings, there’s not a lot of footing for her to place down her assurance on. 

“--Don’t worry about it. Sabo and Luffy like you,” Ace says, cutting her off before she can finish that thought of hers. Maybe _ all _ of them do that. Still, perhaps Makino’s teachings got through to him on the considerate part of reading others, even if he’s the same deep down. Or maybe it’s because he’s heard a little about her but, regardless of the reason, he’s _ trying_. It brings a sniffle to her nose and water to her eyes, but she does her best to blink it away. 

Ace even stands a little straighter from hi original leaning position, uncrossing his arms. For a moment, he looks directly at her, that look shifting away to a grin. He reaches over and takes her hat, ruffling her hair until she tries to get it back. 

_ Goodness _, these brothers. Stubborn, silly, caring, and all genuinely themselves. 

“A~ce!” Luffy calls, zooming up to where they are, “Ko~ala~! Let’s have matches!”

“Hmm?”

“You already expired your hundred, Luffy,” Ace says as both he and Koala face the direction Luffy’s shouts - and rapid steps - are coming from. 

“No, I didn’t! Fight me!”

Ace shakes his head, “Not happening. Wait until tomorrow.” 

“I don’t wanna! Koala, you’re nicer than Ace. Let’s fight.”

“Haha, sorry, Luffy,” Koala shrugs. She closes her book and readjust her hat, then jumping up. There’s no fighting the smile that begins to wrap around her, “because it feels like it’s about the time where we gotta head back.” 

Luffy pouts. It’s very loud and very clear and she knows immediately that just because she _ says _ it’s time, it doesn’t mean it is. Curfew isn’t very real, at all. But that’s just to be expected. Little bout on old game systems they found discarded and managed to somehow get working, or pure and tumbled roughhousing (which doesn’t really contribute directly to her karate training, but she supposes it helps anyway). They limit direct competition between each other in terms of scores, but still always push the others, and themselves, to be better. 

To be known, to see what the world has to offer, to find a place. 

They’ll be about to get a lot of people to believe in what they say, even if it’s impossible, won’t they?

* * *

It’s another night amongst the stars. The boys haven’t yet slipped under the roof of the makeshift home they put together for themselves in Dadan’s backyard because they had been too occupied staring at the sky, forming the lists of their dreams and laughing all about them. 

Luffy lays right across his two older brothers. Instead of doing anything about it, they stay as still a possible, releasing sighs as they continue their star-bound gazes. Ace _ had _ considered trying to move, but that would have just caused Luffy to end up more riled up, so the idea was flatly vetoed. 

Koala herself is bundled up, and it is fortunate that Sabo isn’t moving an inch, because she would surely be laying knocked over versus smoothly against his shoulder. _ Well _ , she wouldn’t have been _ surprised _ if she had fallen over, and any shouts about being mindful would likely have been cast on deaf ears. 

In terms of talking, Sabo doesn’t waste much time. There’s plenty on his mind, so the conversations move like such. Even if Koala was fully awake, he probably wouldn’t have been any more reserved on it. “Hey, Ace, I wonder... which of us was supposed to be the oldest. Koala aside.”

“We’re close enough to the same that it doesn’t matter,” answers Ace. He doesn’t turn his head. There’s no need. 

“Hmm... maybe you _ were _ supposed to be the oldest, by that little bit.”

“Is _ that _ your excuse for being weaker than me?”

“Hey, hey, we’re just about even!”

“But I’m still stronger.” 

“...By juuuuust a little bit.”

“...We’re definitely both meant to be older than this lump though,” Ace says, poking Luffy in the face. Sabo follows suit, but there’s not a budge from Luffy anyway. Just really loud snoring that’s background noise by this point. 

“Yeah, that’s why we’re the lump’s older brothers,” Sabo laughs. “Things would have been a lot different if we weren’t.” 

“We couldn’t have ditched him, even if we tried.” Never mind that they did try. 

These questions continue though. Maybe it’s because Sabo’s been having more dreams lately. Dreams about this sort of thing. Sometimes he’s older by a bit, but usually it’s Ace. Luffy’s _ always _ the youngest though. There’s no picturing him as the older one. That’s something impossible that cannot be dragged to reality. Not even on the dreamscape. 

In her sleepiness, Koala begins to think about it too. How she could have been completely rejected by them, how their dynamic would be different if one of them was absent, how it’d change if their ages were flip-flopped. But, more and more importantly, as this all seeps and steeps in the brew of her mind, she lingers on how much these brothers mean to each other. The stories of before she got there, and the adventures she’s slowly managed to join in on... she’s really glad she’s been welcomed. Thanks to the good people of her past, and the ones now, she’s learned to relax. That it’s okay to be herself. To figure things out. 

They’re all very good at what they do. And even if they weren’t, they’d make it. 

The strongest thought that surfaces (and, oh, it just _ has _ to be considered the strongest one!) is strung along the lines of how much they mean to her. How their hands seem so warm, how they’d probably always be. Sure, they laugh when she cries but they stand and wait for her all the same. She’d like it if things could last like this, just a while longer. This peace... she really adores it. This feeling... she likes being able to have a _ family _ like this. Even if they do have to grow up and go their separate ways, they’ll still always have each other to fall back on, right? 

Truly, she can see, she can feel why they’d be devastated if the world tried to tear them apart. 

She’d be too. 

* * *

So forwards do the easy days continue, and they surely would keep doing so as the four of them get older. They always had a home on the dawn of the beach, situated in the direction that the largest windmills faced, and that’s theirs to return to. For now, they would enjoy an idle life, one that their shoulders deserve to be freed with. 

Learning martial arts from Hack, being sports stars, standing out, and yet still being troublesome _ brats _, that’s just them. 

Now, situated near this ‘quaint’ home, is a bar, owned by one of their close-takers, Makino. Despite it _ being _ a bar, these kids frequent it, not for the drinks, but just to keep the owner company. 

There go the doors, thrown open in an instant. The patrons glance over - and my! are there a bundle of regulars. But their attentions falls flat once they notice that it’s _ just _ one of those snot-nosed noisemakers. This time, it’s the youngest one.

“Makino, teach me!” In that vein, Luffy pulls himself up onto a stool and place a bundle of beat-up papers on the counter of the bar. 

“Oh? Luffy, don’t you have school for that?” Makino laughs. She doesn’t stop wiping off the glass she has in her hands; she’s got a business to run. 

“Shishishi! I like _ you _ better!”

And that’s that. There’s no fighting Luffy on it, not when his grin is corner to corner. His word becomes _ law _, or at least, it’s what he’s to charge right ahead with. Really, it’s just so infectious! And he’s already settled in, so it won’t hurt to assist him. Makino follows up with this by leaning down, placing her elbows on the counter and her head on her hands, “Well, alright then. Let’s see.” 

“Also! Get me some juice! Put it on my tab!” Luffy declares, and he’s very, _ very _ serious about it. All the patrons burst from their lungs unanimously, all too used to the kid being there, but not too numb and dull as to not find amusement in it. It’s a scene that’ll play time and time again. Luffy folds his arms, pouting briefly, before he shakes it off and laughs right along with them.

“Haha, yes, yes, of course! Remember to pay me back once you’re a big shot.”

“Yeah!” 

But Makino had no intention of collecting any debts. If Luffy wanted to do things back for her, he would do it of his own accord. Not because he owed her, but because she existed, and they are friends - a family. 

“Ok~ay, let’s see...” Then, as if the call had rang clear, as if the timing is planned, because it comes right as she begins to properly shift through Luffy’s papers to get a feel for the material, the back door opens. Ace and Sabo are the culprits peering right in. Makino looks over at them, smiling with narrowed, knowing eyes, “Oh, now-_ now_, I’ll help the both of you too.” 

“We don’t _ need _ help,” Ace says, trying his best to act tough. “We just came to make sure Luffy didn’t bother ya too much, since you’re working and all. He’s loud and annoying.” 

The front doesn’t work on Makino. Not at all. Both of the boys standing have their books in their hands. But she lets them think it does, since they seem more relaxed that way, since it makes them feel like they’ve gotten a little victory here and there. “Yes, yes, I know, I know.” She says, reaching under the bar to pull out a pair of glasses, setting them to the side of Luffy. “But, since you’re here, you should sit down.”

Soon, Koala comes huffing in, through the backdoor too, because while abusing that privilege doesn’t feel right as an initial, it beats the intimidating potential of getting called out by any other authority figure and stressing Makino if she hurried through the front. Yeah, yeah, _ technically _ they really are all too young to be there, but who cares! They’re practically kids of Makino’s own, aren’t they? Or at least the little siblings she never thought she’d have. 

“Koala, don’t you want to help me with these boys?” Makino asks, noticing as soon as Koala is present, “Seems like you chased them here, and I could use a hand. Or... is there something you want to review for homework, too?”

“Um...” Koala says, thinking it over, holding her hands together and glancing to the ground. She knows Makino’s got it handled. If she can wrangle in some of the most rowdy tavern goers, then she can cover three boys who _ think _ they’re going to take on the world. “I...”

“Koala, get over here!”

“Yeah, don’t apologize about it either!””

“We know you’d cry!”

“W-Will not! That’s you, Luffy!” 

“Nuh-uh, Koala!” Luffy retorts, but he’s not winning this out either. 

Koala shakes herself back into putting her head high, smile, warmth written back to her, and she marches over to beside Makino. Ace and Sabo have already made their way to the other side of the counter, hopping up beside Luffy, and Sabo’s put on the glasses that Makino set out, once he noticed them. They’re his after all, even if he doesn’t wear them like he ought to. 

Makino steps off and gets a stool for Koala, too, so she can join the others. Koala clambers up, grabbing Makino’s hand for support as a just in case measure. Immediately, the joyous atmosphere comes to be in full swing. Undeniably, eternally, focus shifts and tumbles in and out. But there’s no fun to be had if everything stayed all droll and centered, right?

These precious days, where folks all around are drawn into their auras, their gravities, where the streets nearby are soon filled with the shouts and songs of rambunctious children, come soon teenagers. They’ll all have friends, aside from each other, to bring around in due time, now won’t they? What groups could each of them form? 

Well, what’s known is that they’ll be free to figure that all out, to let their interests explore it! Unscarred and unbarred, Ace will likely get to have days where he can throw his arm around Sabo, full yanking and everything. Those times are here and now, but also rather far off all the same. From primary, to middle, to high school, and wherever their ships take them beyond that, there’s going to be room for more and more. 

“Sabo, whatcha working on?” 

“_Th__is _ is a story about our adventures! I’m done with my schoolwork,” Sabo answers, not specifying that it’s the work he’s actually interested in doing, “so I’m writing things down again!” 

“Oh? That very important storybook of yours makes an appearance again.” 

“Yeah!” Sabo grins, “I’ll probably need more of them again, Makino, but I’m gonna track a much as I can! And when we make more friends and see more of the world, I’ll write that down too!”

“Hehe,” Koala laughs, “That’s just like you, though, Sabo. The world’s a lot bigger, but you’re someone that can make it fit into your hands.” 

“Bet it’ll swallow someone like you, though.” 

“Ace! What was that?” 

“Not a thing.” 

The text might be upside down, but fortunately Sabo’s handwriting is the easiest to read of the three of them. “I don’t really believe that’ll swallow me, but Sabo’s writing is pretty good.”

“Well, if it eats someone, then it’s good, yeah?” 

“Immersion is good, but that’s not what it means!”

Sabo’s having fun though. Everyone can tell. Luffy sits, completely drawn away from his remaining homework, and Makino tries, to no avail, to get him back. She sighs, putting her hands on her hips, resolving to try again later. 

“Sabo, read it to me later!”

“Will do, Luffy! You really like it, Koala?”

“Yeah, they’re your words! And they’ll be yours no matter what,” Koala answers. “I think it’s good you’re writing it all down. I wouldn’t want to forget things like this either.”

Onwards, to the future, where they can relive their childhood, all present, all readied. These will serve as records, proving that there’s happiness mixed in their blood, a happiness that’s unlike the other times. It’s not driven by grief, but by a bond that solidifies that it’s unbreakable by having them all stand. This life is made of dreams, fluffy, fluffy, like cotton candy, like the best treats, like a good platter of meat. 

It burn on flames that’ll never be put out, from the dragon’s breath, to the red hawk’s fight, and to the fist’s fury. 

This is their _ history _ now.

**Author's Note:**

> There are things I will dig into in the second half, but basis of this is there are parallels to canon, including kinda bumpy childhoods before the age of 10-ish, but Sabo isn't separated from Luffy and Ace, and because of this, Koala (and Hack) meet all three of the brothers! As you could tell, this is relatively geared through Koala. I was going to try to finish both part of this before posting, much like I did with my last one piece fic, but if I sit on this any longer, I might not have the will to post it, so may as well get it up out! The second half should be out, in the foreseeable future!


End file.
